Editorial Governance & Editorial-Conflict Standards

Purpose

This policy establishes the minimum governance structure and conflict safeguards that every journal operating under the LMI publishing framework shall maintain for its editorial leadership, editorial board and editorial staff. It is the primary LMI instrument on editorial-team conflicts of role, including the absolute prohibition on same-journal publication by serving editorial-team members.

Editorial Authority

Each journal shall have clearly designated editorial leadership — ordinarily an Editor-in-Chief — in whom scholarly decision authority vests in accordance with A3. Editorial authority may be delegated to editors within a documented structure, but at every point in the process it must be identifiable which person held decision authority for a given manuscript. The publisher appoints and supports editorial leadership (A2) but holds no authority over individual scholarly decisions; monitoring under this policy never confers such authority.

Appointments, Terms and Board Composition

1. Role definition. Every editorial role — Editor-in-Chief, editor, section or associate editor, board member, editorial staff — shall have a written description of its responsibilities and authority.
2. Documented appointment and term. Appointments shall be made on the basis of relevant competence, recorded with start date and term, and reviewed at defined intervals. Changes in appointments shall be documented and the public roster updated promptly.
3. Truthful board disclosure. The journal shall publicly display its current editorial board with accurate names, affiliations and roles. Listing a person without their documented consent, retaining persons who no longer serve, or presenting honorary names as active decision-makers is prohibited. Board membership entails real, continuing responsibility; it confers no entitlement to publish in the journal, to preferential treatment, or to speak for the journal without documented authority.
4. Breadth without tokenism. Journals shall seek editorial expertise appropriately spanning their scope, and appropriate institutional, national and gender diversity, appointed for genuine contribution rather than appearance. LMI prescribes no board size or composition percentages.

Editorial Conflicts of Interest

The definition of competing interests and the general disclosure and recusal framework are established in E1 and are not restated here. Their editorial application is as follows: editors and board members shall declare relevant standing interests on appointment and update them at least annually; an editor with a competing interest in a manuscript — including authorship relationships, recent collaboration, supervisory or family relationships, financial interests, or prior substantive involvement with the work — shall be recused, the manuscript reassigned to a conflict-free editor, and the recusal recorded. A recused editor shall not select reviewers, access confidential materials concerning the matter beyond unavoidable technical necessity, or participate in or influence the decision. Independent handling where editorial leadership itself is conflicted follows A3 and, where escalation is needed, A4.

Absolute Prohibition on Same-Journal Publication by Serving Editorial-Team Members

A serving Editor-in-Chief, editor, editorial-board member or member of a journal's editorial staff shall not author, co-author, submit or publish scholarly content in that journal during their period of service. This is an absolute rule of the LMI publishing framework, not a disclosure or conflict-management rule:

1. The prohibition cannot be cured or excepted by transferring the manuscript to another editor, externalising peer review, declaring the conflict, appointing a guest editor, or obtaining publisher approval. Conflict-management procedures cannot cure the underlying prohibited authorship relationship.
2. The rule protects both actual and perceived independence: readers, authors and assessors cannot verify internal handling arrangements, and the structural relationship between decision-makers and their own journal cannot be neutralised by procedure.
3. Any manuscript received in breach shall be rejected administratively without review, and the event recorded for assurance purposes (H2).
4. A person appointed to an editorial role who has a manuscript under consideration shall withdraw it or decline the appointment before assuming office.
5. The rule applies during active service. After a person's role has formally ended, submission is permitted under the journal's ordinary procedures, handled by editors independent of the former office-holder.

Guest editors are subject to the consequences stated in B3. Other LMI policies refer to this section rather than restating it.

Publisher Monitoring

LMI may verify, at reasonable intervals or on credible concern: current editorial rosters and their public accuracy; appointment and term records; declarations, recusal and reassignment evidence; and compliance with the same-journal publication prohibition, including comparison of published authorship against editorial rosters. Journals shall supply this evidence under H2. Monitoring examines governance compliance only and confers no publisher authority over the acceptance or rejection of any manuscript (A3).

Review, Discipline and Removal of Editors

Editorial appointments may be reviewed, suspended or terminated on grounds including: research or publication misconduct (handled under C5); serious or repeated breach of conflict or confidentiality obligations; participation in manipulation (B2, C3); persistent failure to discharge role responsibilities; or repeated non-compliance with the journal's or LMI's policies. Any such process shall respect fair process — a clear statement of concerns, an opportunity to respond, independent handling where the ordinary decision-makers are conflicted (A4) — and shall be proportionate. Removal or threat of removal shall never be used to punish legitimate editorial decisions that are scientifically sound but inconvenient to the publisher; such use would breach A3 and may be escalated under A4.

Standards and Guidance

Informed by the ICMJE Recommendations on journal governance and editor responsibilities, the COPE Core Practices, and WAME guidance on editorial boards and the publisher–editor relationship.